Survival Care

The mood shift has been very obvious in my office in the past 5 weeks.  People were generally doing okay before Christmas and through the holidays, but the cold overcast January days + stay home orders + school closures have made things more challenging.

Now is NOT the time to make drastic changes to your health (unless you’re in a great place which some of you are!), but it IS a great time to reflect.  What small change can I make that would have the most impact on my day-to-day life?

For a lot of my patients that is committing to 10-15 minutes of outdoor light (ideally a walk, but even a warm tea on the porch is great) daily.

For others -  that is planning out their meals, or eating the same thing every day for breakfast or lunch so they can keep their blood sugar stable, without using so much effort (you can read more about decision-making fatigue here) to feed themselves and their families.  

For others, it’s downloading the ‘Stay-Focused App’ and setting evening parameters for the apps that lead to mindless scrolling and staying up too late.

For others, it’s ordering or borrowing a good fiction novel to stave off boredom (I recently finished The Great Along by Kristin Hannah, and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng which I’d definitely recommend).  

Others need alone time - so they take baths or go for walks, or hide in their bed for a bit daily.

Others are having a hard time finding joy, so they reflect on one thing they’re grateful for on a given day with as much detail as possible - so they can continue to find little joys in the difficult times.

Still others need to create more work-life boundaries, so they set work hours, and get their e-mail and notifications off of their phones.  

I DON’T want you to do all of these things at once.  I want you to reflect: ‘what is the SINGLE easiest change I can make that will have the most impact to support me to get through these challenging times.’

You’ve got this!  As always, reach out for help if you’re in need of a plan, and/or consider joining the 5-day challenge to work to incorporate some of these habits!